Help! Piston Sealing Problem
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 5:28 pm
Hi everyone!
I finally got my barrel sealing tee valve working, but there's a problem! It's a 2" valve with 1" ports, and a 1" ball valve for an exhaust. I'm using some converters attached to the 1" ball valve to connect a quick-release hose to fill it up. Then to fire it, I just remove the quick-release. The problem is that I'm not getting the full 1" exhaust (because it is reduced to 1/4" for the quick-release).
So to try to fix this, I thought I could fill it up, close the ball valve, take the quck-release off then fire it. The problem is when I close the ball valve and stop applying air to it, air starts leaking out of the barrel. I think it's because it's not sealing properly. I also have a spring pushing on the piston pretty hard, but it doesn't help it.
Also, I have a schrader valve on the tee, and when I try to fill from that, all the air just comes out the barrel.
I think the reason why this is all happening is because my sealing material is bad and it only seals when there is a great amount of pressure pushing on it. When filling from the schrader, there isn't enough flow to push the piston enough.
For the piston, I had a sheet of this orangy rubber stuff used for garden hose gaskets. I cut out a circle of that and hot-glued it onto my pison. Since that didn't work very well, I tried hot-gluing a rubber O-ring onto the piston where it hits the 1" pipe. This also didn't maker any difference. I tried lubeing everything with vasoline, but still nothing.
Does anybody know how I can get the barrel to seal better? I think when I cut the 1" pipe that the piston seals against it might be kind of rough, but it's too hard to reach it now to smooth it.
Thanks!
I finally got my barrel sealing tee valve working, but there's a problem! It's a 2" valve with 1" ports, and a 1" ball valve for an exhaust. I'm using some converters attached to the 1" ball valve to connect a quick-release hose to fill it up. Then to fire it, I just remove the quick-release. The problem is that I'm not getting the full 1" exhaust (because it is reduced to 1/4" for the quick-release).
So to try to fix this, I thought I could fill it up, close the ball valve, take the quck-release off then fire it. The problem is when I close the ball valve and stop applying air to it, air starts leaking out of the barrel. I think it's because it's not sealing properly. I also have a spring pushing on the piston pretty hard, but it doesn't help it.
Also, I have a schrader valve on the tee, and when I try to fill from that, all the air just comes out the barrel.
I think the reason why this is all happening is because my sealing material is bad and it only seals when there is a great amount of pressure pushing on it. When filling from the schrader, there isn't enough flow to push the piston enough.
For the piston, I had a sheet of this orangy rubber stuff used for garden hose gaskets. I cut out a circle of that and hot-glued it onto my pison. Since that didn't work very well, I tried hot-gluing a rubber O-ring onto the piston where it hits the 1" pipe. This also didn't maker any difference. I tried lubeing everything with vasoline, but still nothing.
Does anybody know how I can get the barrel to seal better? I think when I cut the 1" pipe that the piston seals against it might be kind of rough, but it's too hard to reach it now to smooth it.
Thanks!